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JPL 2017 Eclipse Simulator
Anyone want to know what the 2017 Eclipse will look like at your location with nice graphics and all? Check out this excellent simulator put together by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. You’ll be able to animate the eclipse for any given location in the US from beginning to end and find out what to expect. I made a collection of some of the locations which will experience partial eclipses (all at their time of maximum eclipse). All these location were in areas of 75% or greater obscuration of the solar disk. Optical and atmospheric effects begin to take hold with 75% obscuration as incoming shortwave radiation from the sun is significantly reduced. Read more about that in my previous July post HERE if you haven’t already. Remember, however, that even with 99% obscuration, the sun will still be too bright and therefore too dangerous too look at directly without certified eclipse glasses. Direct viewing of the sun for multiple minutes can blind you, any amount can cause eye injury!
Additional eclipse info for this post (such as max eclipse time) is courtesy of Xavier Jubier’s 2017 Total Eclipse Interactive Map.
Sky Conditions for August 21, 2017 Eclipse
The Great North American Eclipse is almost here! On Monday, the Moon’s inner shadow or umbra will touchdown over the open Pacific Ocean and rush toward a landfall in Oregon after 10:15 am PDT and exit the South Carolina Coast after 2:50 pm EDT. The shadow will be advancing across at around 1500-2000 mph. An incredible speed.
For an overview of the atmospheric phenomena to expect during the eclipse, see my previous late-July article on the August 21, 2017 Eclipse.
With the eclipse on Monday, the biggest concern is the weather…specifically sky conditions. The National Service, out of national interest in the eclipse (which will ONLY be seen in the United States) now has forecasts available, with special interest in sky condition forecasts.
With that said…just remember…1) There’s more to the eclipse but totality! Regardless of whether you’re in the path or not, dealing with scattered clouds or not, enjoy the eclipse! Watch the crescents form in the shadows of trees, make a pinhole viewer (like this or this for example…I’m planning on making one!), if you have certified eclipse glasses or shades…safely observe the sun directly, and if you’re in a very deep partial (75%+) enjoy the effects of the weakening sun on temperature, sky and the animals. Also…2) For those in totality, all you need is that precious 1 or 2+ mins to be clear around the eclipsed sun. Hopefully, with that 50% or less sky coverage, that will be easier to achieve.
My Plans-
As you all may know, I live in Lincoln, NE…in the path of totality. As the city is literally on the northern edge of the shadow, there is a tight gradient for the length of totality; anywhere from tens of seconds on the north end of town, to 1 min 45 seconds on the south end of town. My house will see around 1 min 15 seconds. We had planned on going to Grand Island, NE about a hour and a half west of here to visit a relative of hers and see the eclipse at 2 min 35 sec (near max possible duration)…but our car has an issue which makes it not reliable for traveling on the highway! 😦 Literally found this out today! Extremely disappointed as there isn’t enough time for us to get the car fixed. But considering we’re still IN totality vs. not, I can’t completely complain. So instead, we’ll be heading to the south end for the maximum length in Lincoln. I’ll have my GoPro set up on a mini-tripod to capture very high-res video of the last minutes before totality and during it. My fiance and I will also take lots of photographs. I will have updates on my Twitter and FB pages as the partial eclipse advances toward totality (feeds also can be seen from the website…but please follow me directly! 🙂 ).
It should be an exciting day! Everyone have safe viewing and have fun!
Less words this post, just a photo :)
Fairly comfortable weather in Eastern Nebraska in August thus far, although the humidity has increased this week. Weather looks good for the eclipse on Monday 👍
Tropical Storm Gert View
Anyone been watching the North Atlantic this weekend. Beautiful view of Tropical Storm Gert this midday Monday. It will remain well offshore the US East Coast and west of Bermuda as it re-curves to the north this week. I may also become a hurricane as it does so by mid-week thanks to interaction with the Gulf Stream and favorable pole-ward outflow as it interacts initially with the westerlies prior to extratropical transition late-week.
On the docket this week for Weather & Climate News –
- The Great American Total Solar Eclipse is ONE WEEK AWAY! Will discuss national weather and other things eclipse-related.
- More on potential tropical activity.
- Will continue with Part 2 of WxClimoEd discussing impacts of Global Climate Change.
For the Eclipse, my fiance and I’ll be heading to Grand Island, NE for the eclipse where totality will last 2 minutes 33 seconds (compared to the south side of Lincoln where the eclipse will only last 1 min 45 sec). We’ll have our 1 yr old with us (his birthday is August 17!) and will hangout with a couple of my fiance’s relatives in town. Should be exciting!
2016 State of the Climate: The Sobering Data
Today The American Meteorological Society, in collaboration with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released their yearly peer-reviewed “State of the Climate” report detailing the state of the global climate. It is…not positive at all.
You can see the full report HERE. But here are the bullet points:
-The report confirms, via independent datasets that 2016 was the warmest year on record for human observations (most world observations go back to mid-1800s). Not only for Earth’s atmosphere but for the Earth’s oceans.
-The Earth’s surface averaged 1.06-1.21 degrees C above pre-industrial levels (depending on datasets available). It is the second year in a row the global land and ocean temperature averaged over 1 degree C. The “danger” zone for destructive impacts on human society and ecosystems around the world according to climate scientists is 2 degrees C or higher. Even 1.5 C would begin to have very hazardous impacts.
-Global carbon dioxide concentration in Earth’s atmosphere (the main greenhouse gas being added by human activity) exceeded 400 part per million on average for the first time ever in human history. Not only that…This is the highest level in Earth’s atmosphere in at least 800,000 years based on data taken from ice cores. For comparison, pre-industrial levels of carbon dioxide concentration was approximately 280 ppm (only 150 yrs ago).
-The increase in the yearly average of carbon dioxide by 3.5 ppm from 2015 to 2016 is the largest increase observed in the 58 year history of observations.
-2016 featured significant portions of land areas suffering from “extreme heat”…heat above the 90 percentile compared to the 1961-1990 average temperature for the location.
-2016 was the warmest year on record for the ocean, causing major stresses for ocean ecosystems, including coral reefs. Over 90% of global warming heating goes into the oceans (100+ zetajoules (1 x 10^23 joules) since 1993…it takes ~4 joules of heat to warm 1 gram of water by 1 degree C…it takes A LOT of energy to raise the temperature of water).
-Sea levels are rising nearly everywhere, at different rates. Added water and thermal expansion by the heating of water are both factors. This is the 6th consecutive year of increase.
-Severe drought impacted at least 12% of the planet’s land area each month of 2016 for the first time in history. (Note: The drought conditions in the Amazon Rain Forest in 2015-16 the third “100-year” event since 2005 with previous events in 2005 and 2010).
-Arctic sea ice had its lowest winter maximum on record and second lowest summer minimum on record in 2016. The mass of the Greenland Ice Sheet, which has ice up to 110,000 yrs old and has the ability to contribute to up to 7 meters sea-level rise is at a record low value.
-2016 was the 37th consecutive year of worldwide Alpine glacial retreat.
-Across the Northern Hemisphere, snow cover was the 4th least extensive in the 47-yr record.
-Record high temperatures at 20 meters were observed at depth in permafrost observatories in Alaska and Canada.
-The United States had the 2nd warmest year on record in 2016 and the 20th consecutive warmer than normal year.
It’s interesting that this came out today because I was actually just beginning to write the draft to the next in the series of WxClimoEd “Understanding Global Climate Change“. But then this blew up my Twitter LOL. This pretty much gives me a good addition to what I would’ve discussed anyways. So let’s do just that…
It appears to me that we have crossed in the 2015-2017 period some crucial thresholds in the “era” of anthropogenic climate change. We are continuing to pump more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than Earth can remove through natural processes. We are essentially heavily polluting our atmosphere with CO2. Earth itself appears to have become a “1 degree C” world in terms of average temperature and major impacts expected to develop as a result. In addition, while our atmosphere is heating up, our oceans are also taking in incredible amounts of energy, slowly heating up and it’s quite literally cooking our marine life, all while the oceans undergo acidification from the CO2 they are taking in which is also causing harm to ecosystems. Coral reefs are facing this head on along with hundreds of thousands of species with depend on them. This is discussed is in the documentary Chasing Coral, which I reviewed HERE.
This year…2017…continues to see further signs of major problems which were predicted to be likely results of climate change.
-The first six months of 2017 (January-June) was the second warmest on record behind 2016. It is also the second warmest on record for the United States.
-July saw record heat for the Western US and Alaska including record July or all-time record maximum monthly temps and sea ice within range of the Arctic Ocean coast. Other cities such as Reno, NV and Salt Lake City had their hottest July’s ever. Miami set an all-time record hottest month ever. Death Valley, CA took its wild heat to another level with an average July temperature of 107.4 degrees F making it the hottest month ever recorded in the United States historical record.
-Arctic sea ice is headed for (yet again) one of its lowest extents in the observational record.
-Boreal forests continue to burn at an unprecedented rate not seen in the past 10,000 yrs. Most notably significant fires have broken out in Canada and in the peat of the Arctic on the border of the ice sheet on Greenland.
I’ll write more about the IMPACTS of climate change…estimates of global and regional effects that I intended on writing about hopefully later this week in my regular post series. But in short…we really have no time to lose on this. Governments and citizens MUST do what they can…from individual efforts to industry…to get carbon emissions down. The more carbon dioxide goes into the atmosphere and higher temperatures rise, the greater the uncertainty as far as resulting phenomena such as climate feedbacks which could either hinder or enhance climate change, the latter of course worsening the situation faster. We as humans, we live our lives and we really have no idea how fragile how our world really is. We must realize how destructive a force we are so we can be constructive to ourselves and our world instead.
Category 1 Hurricane Franklin making landfall on the East Coast of Mexico
Hurricane Franklin is making landfall on the East Coast of Mexico Wednesday night/early Thursday morning (~midnight CDT Thursday) with maximum sustained winds of 85 mph with gusts likely over 100 mph. Besides damaging wind gusts, very heavy rain – up to a foot or more – will be possible in the mountainous terrain once the system moves inland and weakens during the day Thursday. Life threatening flash flooding and mudslides will be the greatest threats to any populated mountain areas (storm surge will be the hazard for coastal areas in the hurricane warning area tonight).
NOAA Raises North Atlantic Tropical Activity Forecast
The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration raised its confidence today that the North Atlantic Basin would have an “very active” season. They called for 14-19 named storms, 5-9 hurricanes, 2-5 major hurricanes. A normal season averages 11 named storms, 6 hurricanes, 2 major hurricanes.
The reasoning for this activity forecast include 1) No El-Nino in the Eastern Pacific which would otherwise produce unfavorable vertical wind shear and cooler sea surface temperatures in the North Atlantic 2) Above normal sea surface temperatures across the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico and Main Development Region (open tropical Atlantic) 3) The continuation of the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation favoring above normal oceanic heat content.
So far, we are at 6 named storms, 1 hurricane, 0 major hurricanes (assuming no surprise intensification of Franklin prior to landfall).
